13th Century Split Tunic

Alianor de Ravenglas

ABSTRACT
This garment is a “split tunic” with slits in the front and back panels. These garments are
ubiquitous in 13th century English and French illustrations. This example is constructed of a
hand-dyed woolen fashion layer and lined with blue linen. It was assembled by hand using linen
thread and a construction technique adapted from one used in the Viborg shirt.

BACKGROUND
In my perusals of 13th century illustrations, I noticed a variation on the standard “tunic”. This
garment appears to have the same basic structure as a tunic, but with a split in the front. From
the iconography, it's not clear whether or not there is a split in the back of the tunic as well; I
have constructed this example with splits in both the front and the back. These garments are
illustrated in Illustrations 1-3. The appear to have been worn exclusively by men.

Illustration 1:
Split Tunics
(Maciejowski Bible)

Illustration 3:
Split Tunic Illustration 2: Split Tunics
(Life of Edward the (Murthly Hours)
Confessor)
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
This garment is made of a hand-dyed woolen fashion layer1 and lined with a medium-weight
linen. I lined the garment for two reasons. First, and most importantly, the pictorial evidence
suggests that these garments were lined (see Illustrations 2 & 3). Second, the fashion fabric is
fairly lightweight and needs the lining to add weight and body to the garment. The thread is a
20/2 half-bleached linen.
Before I cut out the garment, I machine-basted the fashion and lining layers together to keep
them from shifting during cutting and assembly. I do not know how a medieval tailor would
have managed a multi-layered garment, but basting seems a likely solution to the problem of
shifting layers.
The structure of this garment is an adaptation of Nockert Type 5,
which consists of front and back body panels with gores in the sides
and gussets at the join of the sleeve and the side seam. (See
Illustration 4). In order to create the split in the body panels, I
constructed the front and back body panels from two pieces each
rather than one. This simplifies the construction, allowing me to
create the splits by simply leaving the center seams open. While I
have not found evidence, either extant or iconographic, of garments
Illustration 4: with center seams in the body panels, I think this is a plausible
Tunic, Nockert Type 5 construction method for this garment; it allows the tailor to be more
(Carlson) fabric-conservative in the cutting of the garment. Second, I opted
for a garment with a short side seam rather than one where the skirt
gores and arm/body gussets join together. I have made tunics in
both ways and find the join of gusset and gore shown in Illustration
4 to be very fussy to get right. A finished side seam, gusset, and
gore top is shown in Illustration 5.
Gusset In assembling the garment, I used a technique based on one found
on the Viborg shirt. In the Viborg example (see Illustration 6), a
Side Seam
double-layer of one fabric is joined to a single layer (with an edge
turned under) using a stitch that appears to be a hybrid between a
Gores running stitch and an overcast stitch. In my version, I pinned the
lining and fashion layers together and then assembled the garment
using an overcast stitch. (See Illustration 7 for this technique in use
on another garment). This technique requires working with very
small stitches in order to keep the stitching from showing on the
outside of the garment.
Illustration 5:
Detail of Gusset, Side
Seam, and Gore Tops

1 The dying was done by Catlin Woodmane, for whom I made this garment.
13th Century Split Tunic
Alianor de Ravenglas 2
 Illustration 6: Illustration 7:
Viborg Shirt Seam Treatment Lining and Assembly Technique
(Forest)

I finished the neckline of this tunic in a slight keyhole faced with a bias strip. A straight-grain
facing would be more appropriate based on extant 13th century garments, but I find these hard to
work with around the curve of a neckline. I then finished
the neckline with a row of running stitch along the edge of
the facing. The iconography of this period commonly
shows a white line at the various edges of these garments;
this appears in Illustrations 1 and 2. This stitching is
decorative as well as serving to stabilize and strengthen the
neckline.
The hem of the garment is also finished with a facing; this
one is cut on the grain rather than on the bias. I chose to
use a facing on the hem because I thought that turning a Illustration 8:
hem with both the lining and fashion layers would create Neck and Cuff Finishing
too much bulk. Another option would have been to trim
the lining pieces shorter than the fashion layer before
assembling the garment and then turned a hem that consisted of just the fashion layer.

REFLECTIONS
A number of the choices that I made in the construction of this
tunic were based on lessons I learned from my previous
experience making a split tunic. I used double gores in the
sides to add extra fullness, and I machine-basted the fashion
and lining layers together even before I cut out the garment.
I am not entirely satisfied with the way that this construction
technique interacts with the tops of gores; the process of
Illustration 9:
turning all the edges in is extremely finicky and it’s very
Hem Facing and Seam
difficult to get all of the raw edges completely enclosed. I
would like to spend some time studying the construction
techniques used on extant garments, particularly as they relate to gore points, to figure out how
this problem was dealt with in period.

13th Century Split Tunic

Alianor de Ravenglas 3
I also need to refine my technique for cutting out lined garments of this type. Even though I
basted the fashion and lining layers together before cutting,
the cut pieces were never quite identical and there were a
couple of places where wrinkled in the lining fabric caused
significant “gashes” in the edges, as shown in Illustration 8.
In both cases, the problem was easy to patch and is invisible
on the outside of the garment. I tried two different patching
methods. The first (on the left in Illustration 9) was just a
conventional patch. I lined up the raw edge of the patch,
Illustration 10:
turned the others under, and stitched it down. The resulting
Lining Cutting Error patch is very functional, if a bit big. The second (on the
right in Illustration 9) was an attempt to be more subtle about
the repair. It consists of a very narrow strip, applied the

Illustration 11:Repair of Cutting Errors

“wrong way” with a running stitch and then folded over and tacked down. It ends up barely
showing at all, even on the inside of the garment.

Illustration 12: The Finished Garment

13th Century Split Tunic

Alianor de Ravenglas 4
REFERENCES
(~1280). “The Murthly Hours”. © National Museum of Scotland. Available from http://
www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/index.html.
Carlson, I. Marc (1997). “Tunic: Type 5”. Some Clothing of the Middle Ages. Available from
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/type5.html; accessed 3 June 2007.
Cockerell, S.C. . Old Testament Miniatures (also called “The Maciejowski Bible.”) London:
Phaidon Press Ltd. (Some images online at http://www.keesn.nl/mac/mac_en.htm)
Forest, Maggie. “Seam Treatments on the Viborg Shirt”. Available from http://
www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Viborg/SEAMS.HTM; accessed 3 June 2007.
Paris, Matthew. (~1250) The Life of Edward the Confessor. Cambridge University MS Ee 3.59.
Available from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee.3.59/.

13th Century Split Tunic

Alianor de Ravenglas 5